Flavors Of Youth Is Criminally Underrated

 The reason why I got into anime was not because of any one particular series but all these beautiful anime movies out there. So it was surprising to me that I found this one so late.

 Anime movies have always amazed me since I've discovered this medium. I don't know why but they have always offered me more than the regular movies I've been watching up until now. Maybe its the aesthetic, or the increased possibilities that 2D animation provides that makes me feel this way. Some of the best anime movies (or you could just say movies in this case) provides you with characters that you care about, their stories and makes you feel emotions that you weren't expecting, in a span of a couple of hours or less, which is something the series format can offer you only after you dedicate a much higher portion of your time.

So after being introduced to this genre and absolutely falling in love with it, I always had the objective of finding more of such stories, whether it be in a movie or series format, so it was kind of surprising to me that no one really talks about Flavors Of Youth even though it has so much to offer to its viewers while only being 1hr and 13mins long. Talking about my experience, I found this movie while casually scrolling through Netflix and it sparked an interest when I found out it was made by the same studio that made Your Name

Talking about the movie, it is seperated into three episodes each of them being independent of the other. The stories tackle subjects like growing up, anxiety, and young love. The movie also showcases the rapid urbanization that was taking place in China in the 1990's, an attempt to resonate with it's demographic audience I assume. While the format of this movie is quite similar to Makoto Shinkai's 5 Centimeters Per Second, it is worth noting that in contrast to that movie, this one does not have any correlation between it's episodes.

Here's what I thought about the three episodes :

1. Sunny Breakfast

The first story of the movie shows us the life of Ming Xiao through his own narration. The highlights of his life are shown as he eats his favorite Sung Xiao noodles that he used to eat with his grandmother when he was still a child. He compares the different tastes of the noodles and correlates them with the different points in his life. While this episode takes us through some stunning visuals with a decent mixture of CG and 2D animation blended together, it has to be the weakest episode that the movie has to present. It is easy to find it boring and thus not caring about the story. The constant poetic self narration can also be a turn off for some people. But hey, it has some tasty noodles in it!

2. A Little Fashion Show

A Little Fashion Show is a pretty straight forward story about Yin Li and her sister, and how Yin Li  tackles her insecurities considering the line of work she is in and whether she can keep it up. All in all the plot doesn't have much to offer, but the characters are the best in this episode. Her sister and the manager of the protagonist are both pretty likeable characters.

3. Love In Shanghai

Love In Shanghai is arguably the best episode Flavors Of Youth has to offer, and coincidently the most resonating with 5 Centimeters Per Second. This episode handles young love and drifting apart seamlessly. The episode makes you care for the characters and the decisions taken by them. It is sweet yet intense which gives the movie a strong and proper ending which it deserves. The only issue I had for this segment was that the protagonist of this episode Limo and the protagonist for the first episode Xiao Ming look INSANELY similar. For the most of the movie I thought they were the same person until I saw the MAL for the movie. I mean look at them.

For a good 20 mins, I was thinking how the first and third episodes were linked to each other XD 

Final Thoughts

 I call this movie underrated only because of how less it is talked about in the community and the low scores given to it on various platforms. The IMDB rating for this is 6.6 while the MAL rating is 7.5. The reviews on these sites were wildly contrasting. People were either giving it really good scores or really bad ones, hence the aggregate coming to these numerics. People either really loved this movie or find it extremely boring, which honestly I can understand.

One factor contributing to this may be the way this movies is advertised. The trailer and the visuals shown in it instantly reminds you of Your Name. Heck the trailer starts with "from the makers of Your Name" which honestly is good for getting the movie some hype, but adversely it heightens the expectations for the movie to hard to meet standards. The visuals for the movie were pretty impressive and all things considered, I really liked the movie!